Good morning, pretties – this weekend I embarked on a bathroom cleaning project. I ended up cleaning out the bathroom exhaust fan and removing some particularly mildewy bathroom caulk. Seems unrelated, but it was much needed.

Cleaning out the fan was the easy part, I must say. I just plunked down my ladder and popped out the screws and opened it up. Phew! It was massively dusty and GASP even a little mildewy. I’m not sure why I was surprised. That is where all the moisture goes, after all.

Anyway, I was able to completely unscrew the aperture holding the fan in, so I had the luxury of wiping the thing down completely with a nice solution of mild detergent and warm water. Then I took some q-tips and got at the hard to reach places. After it was all cleaned up, I let it dry for a few hours before turning it on – didn’t want to risk getting water in the electrical bits!

Removing the old bathroom caulk was a little bit harder. Usually, I just mix 3 quarts of water with 1 quart of bleach and a little bit of laundry detergent powder and go at with an old toothbrush (or the current toothbrush of a sworn enemy). But some of this caulk was downright nasty and insalvageable (not a word?).

I removed the old non-acrylic caulk before by simply laying a wet rag on it overnight. It gets all soaked up and then peels right off. Acrylic caulk comes up with a little bit of rubbing alcohol – but I now have silicon caulk, which is a pain in the dupa. It’s virtually impossible to remove easily and I ended up having to pick up a harsh alkaline cleanser from the store. After chopping the most of it off with a razor blade, I used the cleanser. It took a couple applications but I eventually got it.

Anyway, the newfangled caulk I put in afterwards has “mildewicides” in it.  Hopefuly this will stop this from happening again!